[Smt-talk] The "Governing tone"

[David K Feurzeig]

Michael Luxner wrote:
> How do you feel about considering the dominant the "governing  
> tone?"  I don't think it's strange at all, and teach it that way all  
> the time.

This is exactly how I think of, and teach, the dominant function. In  
the common practice, the dominant goes to the tonic--so normatively  
that when it doesn't, we deem this "deceptive" or otherwise  
exceptional. The tonic, by contrast, has no "valency;" it does not  
"demand" anything of its successor sonority.

David Feurzeig
University of Vermont
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